Supreme Court seeks measures from SCAORA to ensure correct translation of case documents

Expressing its strong displeasure over the mistranslation of certain documents in a case, the Supreme Court recently asked the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) to address the situation, since the Advocates-on-Record (AoRs) were expected to certify the case documents.

These observations were made by the Bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Aravind Kumar, while hearing the case related to the employment of a teacher.

The top court of the country found that the word ‘reinstatement’ was translated as ‘re-establishment’ in the document, rendering a paragraph meaningless. The Bench directed that the document be filed in original, along with an official transcript.

The top court of the country then called upon SCAORA President Vipin Nair to ascertain how AoRs should address the situation.

The SCAORA was directed to form a pool of translators and make institutional changes, ensuring that all vernacular documents were translated before the final hearing commenced in any given case.

The Bench further ordered the AoR body to apprise the Court about the measures taken in this regard.